Content reproduction system, content providing method, content reproduction apparatus, content providing apparatus, content reproduction program and content providing program

ABSTRACT

In order to reproduce contents with a substantially high degree of efficiency, the present invention provides a content reproduction system in which, typically, a music providing server holds a reproduction list showing a music reproduction order in which pieces of streaming musical data are to be reproduced sequentially and sequentially provides the pieces of streaming musical data to a music reproduction terminal in accordance with the music reproduction order shown in the reproduction list held therein, whereas the music reproduction terminal sequentially reproduces the pieces of streaming musical data provided by the music providing server sequentially.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese PatentApplication JP 2005-196364, filed in the Japanese Patent Office on Jul.5, 2005, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a content reproduction system, acontent providing method, a content reproduction apparatus, a contentproviding-apparatus, a content reproduction program and a contentproviding program. For example, the present invention is appliedsuitably to a music reproduction system including a music providingserver for providing musical data and a music reproduction terminal foracquiring musical data from the music providing server through a networkand, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the acquired musicaldata in the so-called streaming reproduction process.

2. Description of Related Art

In the conventional music reproduction system, when the user carries outa music-specifying operation on a music reproduction terminal to specifymusical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process, themusic reproduction terminal requests the music providing server toprovide the musical data specified in the music-specifying operation.

In this case, the music providing server provides the requested musicaldata to the music reproduction terminal as musical data to be reproducedin a streaming reproduction process. Then, the music reproductionterminal reproduces the acquired musical data in a streamingreproduction process. For more information on the conventional musicreproduction system, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2004-4245.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

By the way, in the music reproduction system having the configurationdescribed above, musical data specified in a music-specifying operationcarried out by the user is reproduced in the music reproduction terminaloperated by the user in a streaming reproduction process. Thus, if thereis a plurality of pieces of musical data to be reproduced in a streamingreproduction process, the user must carry out a plurality ofmusic-specifying operations to specify the pieces of musical data oneafter another. As a result, the music reproduction system raises aproblem that the user is hardly capable of reproducing the pieces ofmusical data in a streaming reproduction process with a high degree ofefficiency.

Addressing the problem described above, inventors of the presentinvention have proposed a content reproduction system capable ofreproducing contents with a substantially high degree of efficiency aswell as a content providing method, a content reproduction apparatus, acontent providing-apparatus, a content reproduction program and acontent providing program, which are provided for the contentreproduction system.

In order to solve the problem described above, in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention, there is provided a contentreproduction system including a content-providing apparatus forproviding contents and a content reproduction apparatus for acquiring acontent from the content-providing apparatus and, at the same time,sequentially reproducing the acquired content. In the contentreproduction system, contents reproducible by the content reproductionapparatus are selected from contents that can be provided by thecontent-providing apparatus and a reproduction list showing an order orreproduction of the selected contents is created. Then, the selectedcontents are provided from the content-providing apparatus to thecontent reproduction apparatus in accordance with the createdreproduction list.

As described above, the content-providing apparatus selects contentsreproducible by the content reproduction apparatus from contents thatcan be provided by the content-providing apparatus and creates areproduction list showing an order or reproduction of the selectedcontents. Then, the content-providing apparatus provides the selectedcontents to the content reproduction apparatus in accordance with thecreated reproduction list. Thus, the content reproduction apparatus iscapable of sequentially receiving the contents sequentially provided bythe content-producing apparatus and sequentially reproducing thecontents in accordance with the reproduction list.

In accordance with the present invention, the content reproductionapparatus is capable of sequentially receiving contents sequentiallyprovided by the content-producing apparatus and sequentially reproducingthe contents in accordance with a reproduction list. Thus, the contentreproduction apparatus is capable of reproducing contents with asubstantially high degree of efficiency without the need for the user tospend long time and much labor.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other objects and features of the present invention willbecome clear from the following description of the preferred embodimentsgiven with reference to the accompanying diagrams, in which:

FIG. 1 is a rough diagram showing an outline of a content reproductionsystem;

FIG. 2 is another rough diagram showing an outline of a contentreproduction system;

FIG. 3 is a rough diagram showing the configuration of a musicreproduction system;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory rough diagram referred to in description of astreaming reproduction process;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a music reproductionsystem in which a music providing server holds a reproduction list;

FIGS. 6A and 6B are rough diagrams showing the configurations of a musicreproduction terminal and the music providing server, respectively;

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of a continuous streaming reproductionprocessing procedure;

FIGS. 8A to 8C show flowcharts of reproduction-list creation processingprocedures;

FIGS. 9A and 9B are rough diagrams showing respectively a reproductionlist and information exchanged between the music providing server andthe music reproduction terminal;

FIG. 10 shows a flowchart of a music-providing processing procedure;

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of a continuous streaming reproductionprocessing procedure;

FIG. 13 shows a flowchart of a music-providing processing procedure;

FIG. 14 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 15 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a music reproductionsystem in which the music reproduction terminal holds a reproductionlist;

FIG. 16 shows a flowchart of a continuous streaming reproductionprocessing procedure;

FIGS. 17A to 17C show flowcharts of reproduction-list creationprocessing procedures;

FIGS. 18A and 18B are rough diagrams showing respectively a reproductionlist and information exchanged between the music providing server andthe music reproduction terminal;

FIG. 19 shows a flowchart of a music-providing processing procedure;

FIG. 20 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIGS. 21A to 21D are explanatory rough diagrams showing managementinformation;

FIG. 22 shows a flowchart of a music reproduction processing procedure;

FIG. 23 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a reproduction list;

FIG. 24 shows a flowchart of a processing procedure for reproducingmusic in accordance with a reproduction list; and

FIG. 25 is an explanatory rough diagram showing a reproduction listhaving a different format.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of the present invention are explained in detail byreferring to diagrams as follows.

(1) Overview

An overview of first to fourth embodiments is explained below byreferring to FIGS. 1 and 2. By the way, after the overview is explained,the first to fourth embodiments are explained concretely.

A content reproduction system 100 shown in FIG. 1 includes acontent-providing apparatus 101 and a content reproduction apparatus102. The content-providing apparatus 101 is an apparatus for providingcontents. On the other hand, the content reproduction apparatus 102 isan apparatus receiving contents provided by the content-providingapparatus 101 and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing thecontents received from the content-providing apparatus 101. Thecontent-providing apparatus 101 selects specific contents that can bereproduced by the content reproduction apparatus 102 from contentsstored in the content-providing apparatus 101 and creates a reproductionlist showing an order of reproduction of the selected contents. Then,the content-providing apparatus 101 provides the selected contents tothe content reproduction apparatus 102 in accordance with thereproduction list.

To put it concretely, the content reproduction apparatus 102 includes aterminal-ID sender section 103 and a content reproduction section 108.The terminal-ID sender section 103 is a unit for transmitting anapparatus ID used for identifying the content reproduction apparatus 102to the content-providing apparatus 101. The content reproduction section108 is a unit for reproducing a content received from thecontent-providing apparatus 101. On the other hand, thecontent-providing apparatus 101 includes a content storage section 104,a content selection section 105, a reproduction-list creation section106 and a content providing section 107. The content storage section 104is a memory used for storing contents that can be provided to thecontent reproduction apparatus 102. The content selection section 105 isa unit for selecting specific contents from the contents stored in thecontent storage section 104. The specific contents selected by thecontent selection section 105 are contents that can be reproduced by thecontent reproduction apparatus 102 identified by an apparatus IDreceived from the terminal-ID sender section 103. The reproduction-listcreation section 106 is a unit for creating a reproduction list showingan order of reproduction of the contents selected by the contentselection section 105. The content providing section 107 is a unit forproviding the content reproduction section 108 with contents inaccordance with the reproduction list created by the reproduction-listcreation section 106. Thus, the content reproduction section 108 iscapable of sequentially reproducing contents provided sequentially bythe content reproduction apparatus 102.

On the other hand, the content reproduction system 110 shown in FIG. 2includes a content-providing apparatus 111 and a content reproductionapparatus 112. The content-providing apparatus 111 is an apparatus forproviding contents. On the other hand, the content reproductionapparatus 112 is an apparatus receiving contents provided by thecontent-providing apparatus 111 and, at the same time, sequentiallyreproducing the contents received from the content-providing apparatus111. The content-providing apparatus 111 selects specific contents thatcan be reproduced by the content reproduction apparatus 112 fromcontents stored in the content-providing apparatus 111. The contentreproduction apparatus 112 creates a reproduction list showing an orderof reproduction of the selected contents. Then, the content-providingapparatus 111 provides the selected contents to the content reproductionapparatus 112 in accordance with the reproduction list created by thecontent reproduction apparatus 112.

To put it concretely, the content-providing apparatus 111 has a contentstorage section 114, a content selection section 115 and contentproviding section 118. The content storage section 114 is a memory usedfor storing contents that can be provided to the content reproductionapparatus 112. The content selection section 115 is a unit for selectingspecific contents from the contents stored in the content storagesection 114. The specific contents selected by the content selectionsection 105 are contents that can be reproduced by the contentreproduction apparatus 112 identified by an apparatus ID received fromthe content reproduction apparatus 112. The content providing section118 is a unit for providing the content reproduction section 119 withcontents requested by the content reproduction apparatus 112. On theother hand, the content reproduction apparatus 112 has a terminal-IDsender section 113, a reproduction-list creation section 116, a contentrequesting section 117 and a content reproduction section 119. Theterminal-ID sender section 113 is a unit for transmitting an apparatusID used for identifying the content reproduction apparatus 112 to thecontent-providing apparatus 111. The reproduction-list creation section116 is a unit for creating a reproduction list showing an order ofreproduction of the contents selected by the content selection section115. The content requesting section 117 is a unit for requesting thecontent-providing apparatus 111 to sequentially transmitting contents inaccordance with a reproduction list created by the reproduction-listcreation section 116. The content reproduction section 119 is a unit forreceiving contents provided sequentially by the content providingsection 118 employed in content-providing apparatus 111 as requested bythe content requesting section 117 and, at the same time, reproducingthe contents received from the content providing section 118.

(2) First Embodiment

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes the whole of a music reproductionsystem, which includes a music providing server 2, a network 3 and amusic reproduction terminal 4. The music providing server 2 is anapparatus for providing musical data to the music reproduction terminal4 by way of the network 3. The music reproduction terminal 4 is anapparatus for receiving musical data from the music providing server 2and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing the received musicaldata in a streaming reproduction process.

A typical streaming reproduction process is explained by referring to aconceptual diagram of FIG. 4 as follows. The music providing server 2selects pieces of musical data requested by the music reproductionterminal 4 among a plurality of pieces of musical data that can beprovided to the network 3 and provides the selected pieces of musicaldata to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data tobe reproduced in a streaming reproduction process. At that time, themusic reproduction terminal 4 sequentially receives the musical dataprovided by the music providing server 2 as streaming musical data andsequentially reproduces the received musical data. Then, the musicreproduction terminal 4 deletes musical data after the end of thereproduction process.

In the case of the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the musicproviding server 2 holds a reproduction list as information on a musicreproduction order, which is an order of reproduction of streamingmusical data, and sequentially provides the streaming musical data tothe music reproduction terminal 4 in an order shown by the reproductionlist. The music reproduction terminal 4 sequentially receives thestreaming musical data provided sequentially by the music reproductionterminal 4 and sequentially reproduces the data. Thus, in accordancewith the music reproduction system 1, the music reproduction terminal 4is capable of reproducing a plurality of pieces of musical data inaccordance with a reproduction list held by the music providing server 2in a streaming reproduction process. This scheme is explained in moredetail as follows.

When a continuous streaming data reproduction operation is carried outon a operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4shown in FIG. 6A to make a request for a continuous streamingreproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data,a control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 as acontroller for controlling the entire music reproduction terminal 4 inan integrated manner transmits a reproduction-list creation requestsignal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission routeincluding a terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminalcommunication section 7 at step ST1 of a procedure shown in FIG. 7. Thereproduction-list creation request signal is a signal making a requestfor creation of a reproduction list to be used in a continuous streamingreproduction process. The reproduction-list creation request signalincludes a terminal ID for identifying the music reproduction terminal4.

In some cases, the reproduction-list creation request signal accordingto this embodiment may include a reproduction-list creation conditionshowing a requirement for creation of a reproduction list. For example,the reproduction-list creation condition typically includes musical-dataspecification information specifying pieces of musical data to be put onthe reproduction list, musical-data type specification informationspecifying the types of pieces of musical data to be put on thereproduction list and reproduction-order specification informationspecifying an order of reproduction of the specified pieces of musicaldata. The types of musical data may be the name of an artist associatedwith the musical data, the genre of the musical data and a conditionrequiring that the musical data shall be data included in the top ten ofsales. An example of the reproduction-order specification information isan order of release dates starting with the latest date. In addition,the reproduction-list creation request signal according to thisembodiment may include a desired reproduction list created in advance bythe user. The desired reproduction list created in advance by the usershows an order desired by the user as an order of reproduction of thepieces of streaming musical data requested by the user.

When a server communication section 8 employed in the music providingserver 2 shown in FIG. 6B receives a reproduction-list creation requestsignal transmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4, a controlsection 9 employed in the music providing server 2 as a section forcontrolling the entire music providing server 2 in an integrated mannercarries out a reproduction-list creation process at step ST2 of theprocedure shown in FIG. 7.

The reproduction-list creation processing is explained concretely byreferring to flowcharts shown in FIG. 8. In the case of thereproduction-list generation processing procedure RT1 shown in FIG. 8A,for example, at the first step SP1, the control section 9 employed inthe music providing server 2 receives a reproduction-list generationrequest signal including a terminal ID from the music reproductionterminal 4. Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP2. At stepSP2, the control section 9 carries out a reproducible-music selectionprocess to select pieces of musical data, which can be reproduced by themusic reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included inthe reproduction-list generation request signal in a streamingreproduction process, from a plurality of pieces of musical data storedin a server storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2.Then, the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L1 like oneshown in FIG. 9A by arranging musical-data IDs each used for identifyinga piece of musical data selected in the reproducible-music selectionprocess in a reproduction order. Subsequently, the control section 9stores the created reproduction list L1 in the server storage section10. At that time, the control section 9 associates the terminal ID ofthe music reproduction terminal 4 making a request for the generation ofthe reproduction list L1 with the reproduction list L1. In addition, thecontrol section 9 also associates each of the musical-data IDs includedin the reproduction list L1 with information on a storage location atwhich the piece of musical data identified by the musical-data ID hasbeen stored in the server storage section 10. The information on astorage location typically includes a path on the server storage section10.

By the way, in the processing to select reproducible musical data inaccordance with this embodiment, for example, musical data having aformat allowing the musical data to be reproduced by the musicreproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID is selected asmusical data reproducible in a streaming reproduction process. Examplesof the format allowing the musical data to be reproduced by the musicreproduction terminal 4 are MP3 and ATRAC. As another example, in theprocessing to select reproducible musical data, musical data accordingto a service to which the user of the music reproduction terminal 4subscribes is selected as musical data reproducible in a streamingreproduction process. In addition, a variety of selection techniques canbe adopted in the processing to select reproducible musical data.

In the case of the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT2shown in FIG. 8B, at the first step SP3, the control section 9 employedin the music providing server 2 receives a reproduction-list generationrequest signal including a terminal ID and a condition for creation of areproduction list from the music reproduction terminal 4. Then, the flowof the procedure goes on to step SP4. At step SP4, the control section 9carries out a reproducible-music selection process to select pieces ofmusical data, which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal4 identified by the terminal ID included in the reproduction-listgeneration request signal in a streaming reproduction process, from aplurality of pieces of musical data stored in a server storage section10 employed in the music providing server 2. Then, the control section 9creates a reproduction list L1 by arranging musical-data IDs in areproduction order satisfying a requirement specified in the conditionincluded in the reproduction-list generation request signal as thecondition for creation of a reproduction list. The musical-data IDs puton the reproduction list L1 are each used for identifying a specificpiece of musical data extracted from the pieces of musical data selectedin the reproducible-music selection process as a specific piece ofmusical data meeting the condition. Subsequently, the control section 9stores the created reproduction list L1 in the server storage section10.

In the case of the reproduction-list generation processing procedure RT3shown in FIG. 8C, at the first step SP5, the control section 9 employedin the music providing server 2 receives a reproduction-list generationrequest signal including a terminal ID and a desired reproduction listfrom the music reproduction terminal 4. Then, the flow of the proceduregoes on to step SP6. At step SP6, the control section 9 carries out areproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data,which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identifiedby the terminal ID included in the reproduction-list generation requestsignal in a streaming reproduction process, from a plurality of piecesof musical data stored in a server storage section 10 employed in themusic providing server 2. Then, the control section 9 creates areproduction list L1 by arranging musical-data IDs in a reproductionorder shown in the desired reproduction list included in thereproduction-list generation request signal. The musical-data IDs put onthe reproduction list L1 are each used for identifying a specific pieceof musical data extracted from the pieces of musical data selected inthe reproducible-music selection process as a specific piece of musicaldata put on the desired reproduction list. Subsequently, the controlsection 9 stores the created reproduction list L1 in the server storagesection 10.

After the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2stores a reproduction list L1 created in the reproduction-listgeneration processing procedure RT1, RT2 or RT3 in the server storagesection 10 as described above, at step ST3 of the procedure shown inFIG. 7, the control section 9 transmits a reproducibility notice signalto the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission routeincluding the server communication section 8 employed in the musicproviding server 2 and the network 3 following the server communicationsection 8 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 that acontinuous streaming reproduction process can be carried out inaccordance with the reproduction list L1 stored in the server storagesection 10.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducibility notice signal fromthe music providing server 2, at step ST4 of the procedure shown in FIG.7, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4transmits a continuous streaming reproduction start request signal tothe music providing server 2 by way of a transmission route includingthe terminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminal communicationsection 7 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to startthe continuous streaming reproduction process according to thereproduction list L1.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providingserver 2 receives the continuous streaming reproduction start requestsignal from the music reproduction terminal 4, at step ST5 of theprocedure shown in FIG. 7, the control section 9 employed in the musicproviding server 2 transmits a music-providing process start noticesignal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmissionroute including the server communication section 8 and the network 3following the server communication section 8 as a signal informing themusic reproduction terminal 4 that a process to transmit musical data inaccordance with the reproduction list L1 to the music reproductionterminal 4 as streaming musical data has been started. By the way, themusic-providing process start notice signal includes attributes of thestreaming musical data to be provided first by the music providingserver 2. Typically, the attributes include information such as thetitle of a piece of streaming musical data provided initially to themusic reproduction terminal 4 and the name of an artist associated withthe initial piece of streaming musical data.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the music-providing process startnotice signal from the music providing server 2, at step ST6 of theprocedure shown in FIG. 7, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 displays information based on the attributesincluded in the music-providing process start notice signal receivedfrom the music providing server 2 on the display section 11 asinformation on the streaming musical data. The displayed informationtypically includes the title of the streaming musical data to bereproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the namesof artists associated with the streaming musical data.

After transmitting a music-providing process start notice signal to themusic reproduction terminal 4, at step ST7 of the procedure shown inFIG. 7, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2refers to the reproduction list L1 to recognize a storage locationassociated with the first musical-data ID in the reproduction order.Then, the control section 9 reads out musical data from the storagelocation recognized as a storage location in the server storage section10 and transmits the musical data read out from the server storagesection 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmissionroute including the server communication section 8 and the network 3following the server communication section 8 as streaming musical data.

In this way, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 is capable of outputting sounds of music from the soundoutputting section 13 by controlling the reproduction section 12 tosequentially reproduce the streaming musical data being received by theterminal communication section 7 from the music providing server 2.

Immediately after the control section 9 employed in the music providingserver 2 finishes the transmission of the first streaming musical datashown in the reproduction list L1, the control section 9 transmits eachof the subsequent pieces of streaming musical data shown in thereproduction list L1 by executing the same procedure as the steps ST5 toST7 described above.

Next, the continuous streaming reproduction procedure MRT1 shown in FIG.7 is explained by dividing the procedure into a processing procedureexecuted by the music providing server 2 and a processing procedureexecuted by the music reproduction terminal 4 as follows.

First of all, a music providing processing procedure RT4 executed by themusic providing server 2 is described by referring to a flowchart shownin FIG. 10 as follows.

When a reproduction-list creation request signal is received from themusic reproduction terminal 4 at the first step SP11, the flow of theprocedure goes on to the next step SP12 at which the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result ofdetermination as to whether or not a continuous streaming reproductionservice can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identifiedby a terminal ID included in the received reproduction-list creationrequest signal. If the determination result produced at step SP12 is adenial, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP13 at which thecontrol section 9 carries out error processing by typically informingthe user that a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able tobe rendered to the user then, at the next step SP14, the control section9 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedure RT4.This is because the denial result indicates that a continuous streamingreproduction service is not able to be rendered to the musicreproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that the user of the musicreproduction terminal 4 is not a registered user subscribing to theservice. If the determination result produced at step SP12 is anaffirmation, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on tostep SP15 at which the control section 9 creates a reproduction list L1by execution of either of the reproduction-list generation processingprocedures RT1, RT2 and RT3 described above. This is because theaffirmation result indicates that a continuous streaming reproductionservice can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4.

After the process to create the reproduction list L1 is ended normally,the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP16 at which thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits areproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4.Right after the transmission, the flow of the procedure goes on to thenext step SP17 at which the control section 9 receives a continuousstreaming reproduction start request signal from the music reproductionterminal 4. After the continuous streaming reproduction start requestsignal is received from the music reproduction terminal 4, the flow ofthe procedure goes on to the next step SP18 at which the control section9 transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the musicreproduction terminal 4 as a signal informing the music reproductionterminal 4 that a process to provide streaming musical data to the musicreproduction terminal 4 has been started.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP19 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 detects astorage location associated with the musical-data ID in accordance withthe order of reproduction from the reproduction list L1 and reads outmusical data stored in the detected storage location from the serverstorage section 10. Then, the control section 9 transmits the musicaldata read out from the server storage section 10 to the musicreproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data.

After the musical data is transmitted to the music reproduction terminal4, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP20 at which thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces aresult of determination as to whether or not next musical data in theorder of reproduction exists on the reproduction list L1. If thedetermination result produced at step SP20 is an affirmation indicatingthat the next musical data in the order of reproduction exists on thereproduction list L1, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP18at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the musicreproduction terminal 4 as a signal informing the music reproductionterminal 4 that a process to provide the next streaming musical data tothe music reproduction terminal 4 in the order of reproduction has beenstarted. If the determination result produced at step SP20 is a denial,on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last stepSP14 at which the control section 9 employed in the music providingserver 2 ends the execution of the music providing processing procedureRT4. This is because the denial result indicates that the musical-dataID identifying the musical data to be reproduced next in the streamingreproduction process does not exist on the reproduction list L1.

Next, a music reproduction processing procedure RT5 executed by themusic reproduction terminal 4 is explained by referring to a flowchartshown in FIG. 11.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on theoperation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 inorder to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction processto reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at the first stepSP31, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal to the musicproviding server 2 as a signal making a request for creation of areproduction list L1.

Then, at the next step SP32, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whetheror not a reproducibility notice signal has been transmitted from themusic providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibilitynotice signal to arrive from the music providing server 2. As thereproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2,the control section 6 produces an affirmation result of determination atstep SP32. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP33.If the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4determines that a reproducibility notice signal is not able to arrivefrom the music providing server 2, on the other hand, the determinationresult produced at step SP32 is a denial. In this case, the flow of theprocedure goes on to step SP34 at which the control section 6 carriesout error processing including a process to inform the user that therequest for a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce aplurality of pieces of musical data has been turned down. Then, at thenext step SP35, the control section 6 ends the execution of the musicreproduction processing procedure RT5.

At step SP33, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 transmits a continuous streaming reproduction start requestsignal to the music providing server 2 as a signal to start a continuousstreaming reproduction process to reproduce musical data in accordancewith the reproduction list L1.

Then, at the next step SP36, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives a music-providing process start noticesignal transmitted by the music providing server 2. Subsequently, theflow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP37. At step SP37, thecontrol section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displaysinformation based on musical-data attributes, which are included in themusic-providing process start notice signal received from the musicproviding server 2 as the attributes of the musical data to be providedby the music providing server 2, on the display section 11 asinformation on the streaming musical data. The displayed informationtypically includes the title of the streaming musical data to bereproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the namesof artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at the next step SP38, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 carries out a streaming reproduction process tooutput sounds of music from the sound outputting section 13 bycontrolling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce thestreaming musical data being received by the terminal communicationsection 7 from the music providing server 2.

Right after the streaming reproduction process to reproduce thestreaming musical data is finished, the flow of the procedure goes on tothe next step SP39 at which the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whetheror not a music-providing process start notice signal to reproduce themusical data to be reproduced next in accordance with the reproductionorder has been received from the music providing server 2. If thedetermination result produced at step SP39 is an affirmation, the flowof the procedure goes back to the next step SP37 at which the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 displaysinformation based on attributes, which are included in themusic-providing process start notice signal received from the musicproviding server 2 as the attributes of the musical data to be providedby the music providing server 2, on the display section 11 asinformation on the streaming musical data. As described above, thedisplayed information typically includes the title of the streamingmusical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproductionprocess and the names of artists associated with the streaming musicaldata. This is because the affirmation result produced at step SP39 meansthat the music-providing process start notice signal received from themusic providing server 2 indicates the existence of musical data to bereproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order as musicaldata indicated by the received music-providing process start noticesignal. If the determination result produced at step SP39 is a denialindicating that no music-providing process start notice signal toreproduce the musical data to be reproduced next in accordance with thereproduction order has been received from the music providing server 2,on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last stepSP35 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processingprocedure RT5.

In the configuration described above, the music reproduction system 1includes a music providing server 2, a network 3 and a musicreproduction terminal 4. The music providing server 2 is an apparatusfor providing musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 by wayof a transmission route including the network 3. The music reproductionterminal 4 is an apparatus for receiving musical data from the musicproviding server 2 and, at the same time, sequentially reproducing thereceived data in a streaming reproduction process.

When the user carries out a continuous streaming reproduction operationon the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal4, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal including theterminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providingserver 2.

When the music providing server 2 receives the reproduction-listcreation request signal including the terminal ID of the musicreproduction terminal 4 from the music reproduction terminal 4, thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out areproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical data,which can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal 4 identifiedby the terminal. ID included in the reproduction-list generation requestsignal in a streaming reproduction process, from a plurality of piecesof musical data stored in a server storage section 10 employed in themusic providing server 2. Then, the control section 9 creates areproduction list L1 showing an order of reproduction of the selectedpieces of musical data.

Subsequently, the control section 9 employed in the music providingserver 2 sequentially provides the musical data read out from the serverstorage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 as streamingmusical data in accordance with the reproduction order shown in thecreated reproduction list L1.

Thus, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentiallyreceiving the streaming musical data sequentially provided by the musicproviding server 2 in accordance with the reproduction list L1 held inthe music providing server 2 and sequentially reproducing the receivedstreaming musical data.

In accordance with the configuration described above, it is possible torealize a music reproduction system 1 in which the music reproductionterminal 4 is capable of sequentially receiving the streaming musicaldata sequentially provided by the music providing server 2 in accordancewith the reproduction list L1 held in the music providing server 2 andsequentially reproducing the received streaming musical data and, inaddition, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of reproducingmusical data with a substantially high degree of efficiency without theneed for the user to spend long time and much labor.

(3) Second Embodiment

A second embodiment implements the music reproduction system 1, themusic providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4, whichhave configurations identical with the configurations of theirrespective counterparts implemented by the first embodiment. In the caseof the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 5, the music providing server2 holds the reproduction list L1 as is the case with the firstembodiment. The following description is focused on differences betweenthe first and second embodiments.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on theoperation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 inorder to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction processto reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at step ST11 of aprocedure shown in FIG. 12, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproduction-list creation requestsignal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission routeincluding the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminalcommunication section 7 as a signal making a request for creation of areproduction list L1 to be used in the continuous streaming reproductionprocess. The reproduction-list creation request signal includes aterminal ID for identifying the music reproduction terminal 4. In somecases, the reproduction-list creation request signal according to thisembodiment may include a reproduction-list creation condition showing arequirement for creation of a reproduction list. The reproduction-listcreation request signal according to this embodiment may also include adesired reproduction list.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providingserver 2 shown in FIG. 6B receives a reproduction-list creation requestsignal transmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4, the controlsection 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out one ofthe reproduction-list creation processes RT1, RT2 and RT3 at step ST12of the procedure shown in FIG. 12 in order to create a reproduction listL1.

After the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2stores a reproduction list L1 created in the reproduction-listgeneration processing procedure RT1, RT2 or RT3 in the server storagesection 10 as described above, at step ST13 of the procedure shown inFIG. 12, the control section 9 transmits a reproducibility notice signalto the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission routeincluding the server communication section 8 and the network 3 followingthe server communication section 8 as a signal informing the musicreproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streaming reproduction processcan be carried out in accordance with the reproduction list L1 stored inthe server storage section 10. At that time, the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 acquires a musical-data ID fromthe reproduction list L1 as the musical-data ID of musical data to bereproduced first by the music reproduction terminal 4 and includes theacquired musical-data ID in the reproducibility notice signal to betransmitted to the music reproduction terminal 4.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducibility notice signalincluding the musical-data ID from the music providing server 2, at stepST14 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12, the control section 6 employedin the music reproduction terminal 4 stores the musical-data ID includedin the reproducibility notice signal in the terminal storage section 14.

Then, at step ST15 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12, the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits amusic request signal to the music providing server 2 by way of atransmission route including the terminal communication section 7employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3following the terminal communication section 7 as a signal requestingthe music providing server 2 to provide the music reproduction terminal4 with musical data identified by the musical-data ID stored in theterminal storage section 14 as streaming musical data. At that time, asshown in FIG. 9B, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 includes the musical-data ID used foridentifying musical data requested as musical data to be provided by themusic providing server 2 and the terminal ID identifying the musicreproduction terminal 4 in the music request signal.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providingserver 2 receives the music request signal including the musical-data IDand the terminal ID from the music reproduction terminal 4, the controlsection 9 employed in the music providing server 2, confirms theexistence of the reproduction list L1 including the musical-data ID. Ifthe existence of the reproduction list L1 can be confirmed, at step ST16of the procedure shown in FIG. 12, the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 searches the reproduction list L1 for a storagelocation of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID. Then, atstep ST17 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12, the control section 9transmits a music-providing process start notice signal to the musicreproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route including theserver communication section 8 and the network 3 following the servercommunication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproductionterminal 4 that a process to transmit musical data to the musicreproduction terminal 4 as streaming musical data to the musicreproduction terminal 4 has been started. By the way, themusic-providing process start notice signal includes attributes of thestreaming musical data to be provided first by the music providingserver 2. Typically, the attributes include information such as thetitle of a piece of streaming musical data provided initially to themusic reproduction terminal 4 and the name of an artist associated withthe initial piece of streaming musical data.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the music-providing process startnotice signal from the music providing server 2, at step ST18 of theprocedure shown in FIG. 12, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 displays information based on the attributesincluded in the music-providing process start notice signal from themusic providing server 2 on the display section 11 as information on thestreaming musical data. The displayed information typically includes thetitle of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in astreaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated withthe streaming musical data.

After transmitting a music-providing process start notice signal to themusic reproduction terminal 4, at step ST16 of the procedure shown inFIG. 12, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2refers to the reproduction list L1 to recognize a storage locationassociated with the first musical-data ID in the reproduction order.Then, the control section 9 reads out musical data from the storagelocation recognized as a storage location in the server storage section10 and transmits the musical data read out from the server storagesection 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmissionroute including the server communication section 8 and the network 3following the server communication section 8 as streaming musical dataat step S19 of the procedure shown in FIG. 12.

Thus, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 is capable of outputting sounds of music from the sound outputtingsection 13 by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentiallyreproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminalcommunication section 7 from the music providing server 2.

Immediately after the control section 9 employed in the music providingserver 2 finishes the transmission of the first streaming musical datashown in the reproduction list L1, the control section 9 transmits eachof the subsequent pieces of streaming musical data shown in thereproduction list L1 by executing the same procedure as the steps ST13to ST19 described above.

Next, the continuous streaming reproduction procedure MRT2 shown in FIG.12 is explained by dividing the procedure into a processing procedureexecuted by the music providing server 2 and a processing procedureexecuted by the music reproduction terminal 4 as follows.

First of all, a music providing processing procedure RT6 executed by themusic providing server 2 is described by referring to a flowchart shownin FIG. 13 as follows.

When a reproduction-list creation request signal is received from themusic reproduction terminal 4 at the first step SP51, the flow of theprocedure goes on to step SP52 at which the control section 9 employedin the music providing server 2 produces a result of determination as towhether or not a continuous streaming reproduction service can berendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by a terminalID included in the received reproduction-list creation request signal.If the determination result produced at step SP52 is a denial, the flowof the procedure goes on to step SP53 at which the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 carries out error processing bytypically informing the user that a continuous streaming reproductionservice is not able to be rendered to the user then, at the next stepSP54, the control section 9 ends the execution of the music providingprocessing procedure RT6. This is because the denial result indicatesthat a continuous streaming reproduction service is not able to berendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that theuser of the music reproduction terminal 4 is not a registered usersubscribing to the service. If the determination result produced at stepSP52 is an affirmation, on the other hand, the flow of the proceduregoes on to step SP55 at which the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 creates a reproduction list L1 by execution ofeither of the reproduction-list generation processing procedures RT1,RT2 and RT3 described above. This is because the affirmation resultindicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service can berendered to the music reproduction terminal 4.

After the process to create the reproduction list L1 is ended normally,the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP56 at which thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits areproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 as asignal including the musical-data ID of musical data to be reproducedfirst in a streaming reproduction process.

Right after the transmission, the flow of the procedure goes on to thenext step SP57 at which the control section 9 employed in the musicproviding server 2 receives a music request signal including a terminalID and a musical-data ID from the music reproduction terminal 4. Then,the control section 9 confirms the existence of the reproduction list L1showing the musical-data ID. If the existence of the reproduction listL1 can be confirmed, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP58 atwhich, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2searches the reproduction list L1 for a storage location of the musicaldata identified by the musical-data ID.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP59 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 producesa result of determination as to whether or not the musical data storedat the storage location found in the process to search the reproductionlist L1 can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4.

If the determination result produced at step SP59 is a denial, the flowof the procedure goes on to step SP60 at which the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result ofdetermination as to whether or not musical data to be reproduced next inaccordance with the reproduction order is included on the reproductionlist L1. This is because the denial result typically indicates that nomusical data is stored at the storage location and can be provided tothe music reproduction terminal 4. If the determination result producedat step SP60 is an affirmation indicating that the reproduction list L1includes the musical ID of the next musical data that can be reproducedin a streaming reproduction process, the flow of the procedure goes backto step SP56 at which the control section 9 employed in the musicproviding server 2 transmits a reproducibility notice signal to themusic reproduction terminal 4 as a signal including the musical-data IDof the next musical data to be reproduced in a streaming reproductionprocess. If the determination result produced at step SP60 is a denial,on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last stepSP54 at which the control section 9 ends the execution of the musicproviding processing procedure RT6. This is because the denial resultindicates that the reproduction list L1 does not include the musical IDof the next musical data that can be reproduced in a streamingreproduction process.

If the determination result produced at step SP59 is an affirmation, onthe other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP61 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmitsa music-providing process start notice signal to the music reproductionterminal 4 as a signal informing the music reproduction terminal 4 thata process to provide streaming musical data to the music reproductionterminal 4 has been started. This is because the affirmation resulttypically indicates that musical data has been stored at the storagelocation and can be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP62 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 reads outmusical data stored in the storage location found in the search processcarried out on the reproduction list L1 from the server storage section10. Then, the control section 9 transmits the musical data read out fromthe server storage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 asstreaming musical data.

After the musical data is transmitted to the music reproduction terminal4, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP63 at which thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 produces aresult of determination as to whether or not next musical data in theorder of reproduction exists on the reproduction list L1. If thedetermination result produced at step SP63 is an affirmation indicatingthat the next musical data in the order of reproduction exists on thereproduction list L1, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP56at which the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2transmits a reproducibility notice signal to the music reproductionterminal 4 as a signal including the musical-data ID of the next musicaldata to be reproduced in a streaming reproduction process. If thedetermination result produced at step SP63 is a denial, on the otherhand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP54 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 ends theexecution of the music providing processing procedure RT6. This isbecause the denial result indicates that the musical-data ID identifyingthe musical data to be reproduced next in the streaming reproductionprocess does not exist on the reproduction list L1.

Next, a music reproduction processing procedure RT7 executed by themusic reproduction terminal 4 is explained by referring to a flowchartshown in FIG. 14.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on theoperation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 inorder to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction processto reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at the first stepSP71, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 transmits a reproduction-list creation request signal to the musicproviding server 2 as a signal making a request for creation of areproduction list L1.

Then, at the next step SP72, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whetheror not a reproducibility notice signal has been transmitted from themusic providing server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibilitynotice signal to arrive from the music providing server 2. As thereproducibility notice signal arrives from the music providing server 2,the control section 6 produces an affirmation result of determination atstep SP72. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP73at which the control section 6 stores the musical-data ID included inthe received reproducibility notice signal in the terminal storagesection 14. Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next stepSP74. If the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 determines that a reproducibility notice signal is not ableto arrive from the music providing server 2, on the other hand, thedetermination result produced at step SP72 is a denial. In this case,the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP75 at which the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries outerror processing including a process to inform the user that the requestfor a continuous streaming reproduction process to reproduce a pluralityof pieces of musical data has been turned down. Then, at the next stepSP76, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT7.

At step SP74, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 transmits a music request signal to the music providingserver 2 as a signal requesting the music providing server 2 to providethe music reproduction terminal 4 with musical data identified by themusical-data ID stored in the terminal storage section 14 as streamingmusical data.

Then, at the next step SP77, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whetheror not a music-providing process start notice signal has beentransmitted by the music providing server 2 in a state of waiting forthe music-providing process start notice signal to arrive from the musicproviding server 2. As the reproducibility notice signal arrives fromthe music providing server 2, the control section 6 produces anaffirmation result of determination at step S77. In this case, the flowof the procedure goes on to step SP78. If the control section 6 employedin the music reproduction terminal 4 determines that a music-providingprocess start notice signal does not arrive from the music providingserver 2, on the other hand, the determination result produced at stepSP77 is a denial. In this case, the flow of the procedure goes on tostep SP79 at which the control section 6 produces a result ofdetermination as to whether or not a reproducibility notice signalincluding the musical-data ID of the musical data to be reproduced nextin a streaming reproduction process has been transmitted from the musicproviding server 2 in a state of waiting for the reproducibility noticesignal, which includes the musical-data ID of the musical data to bereproduced next in a streaming reproduction process, to arrive from themusic providing server 2 instead of waiting for the music-providingprocess start notice signal determined at step SP77 not to arrive fromthe music providing server 2. As the reproducibility notice signalarrives from the music providing server 2, the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces an affirmationresult of determination at step S79. In this case, the flow of theprocedure goes back to step SP73 at which the control section 6 storesthe musical-data ID included in the received reproducibility noticesignal in the terminal storage section 14. If the control section 6determines that a reproducibility notice signal does not arrive from themusic providing server 2, on the other hand, the determination resultproduced at step SP79 is a denial. In this case, the flow of theprocedure goes on to the last step SP76 at which the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of themusic reproduction processing procedure RT7.

At step SP78, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 displays information based on musical-data attributes, whichare included in the music-providing process start notice signal receivedfrom the music providing server 2 as the attributes of the musical datato be provided by the music providing server 2, on the display section11 as information on the streaming musical data. The displayedinformation typically includes the title of the streaming musical datato be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and thenames of artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at the next step SP80, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 carries out a streaming reproduction process tooutput sounds of music from the sound outputting section 13 bycontrolling the reproduction section 12 to sequentially reproduce thestreaming musical data being received by the terminal communicationsection 7 from the music providing server 2.

Right after the streaming reproduction process to reproduce thestreaming musical data is finished, the flow of the procedure goes on tothe next step SP81 at which the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whetheror not a reproducibility notice signal including the musical-data ID ofthe musical data to be reproduced next in a streaming reproductionprocess has been transmitted from the music providing server 2 in astate of waiting for the reproducibility notice signal to arrive fromthe music providing server 2. As the reproducibility notice signalarrives from the music providing server 2, the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 produces an affirmationresult of determination at step SP81. In this case, the flow of theprocedure goes back to step SP73 at which the control section 6 storesthe musical-data ID included in the received reproducibility noticesignal in the terminal storage section 14. If the control section 6determines that a reproducibility notice signal does not arrive from themusic providing server 2, on the other hand, the determination resultproduced at step SP81 is a denial. In this case, the flow of theprocedure goes on to the last step SP76 at which the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of themusic reproduction processing procedure RT7.

In the configuration described above, the control section 9 employed inthe music providing server 2 creates a reproduction list L1 showing themusical-data ID of each musical data to be provided to the musicreproduction terminal 4.

Then, before musical data is provided by the music providing server 2 tothe music reproduction terminal 4 in accordance with the reproductionlist L1 as streaming musical data, the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 stores the musical-data ID of the musical datain the music reproduction terminal 4.

Thus, even if an error occurs in the music reproduction system 1 due toa failure of the network 3 while streaming musical data is beingtransmitted from the music providing server 2 to the music reproductionterminal 4 and causes the transmission to be temporarily suspended, themusical-data ID of the streaming musical data being transmitted hasalready been stored in the music reproduction terminal 4. As a result,the streaming reproduction process of the musical data identified by thestored musical-data ID stored can be resumed.

As explained above, in accordance with the configuration, even if anerror is detected due to a failure of the network 3 while streamingmusical data is being transmitted from the music providing server 2 tothe music reproduction terminal 4 and causes the transmission to betemporarily stopped, the musical-data ID of the streaming musical databeing transmitted has already been stored in the music reproductionterminal 4. As a result, the streaming reproduction process of themusical data identified by the stored musical-data ID stored can beresumed so that the user-friendliness of the music reproduction system 1can be enhanced considerably.

(4) Third Embodiment

A third embodiment implements the music reproduction system 1, the musicproviding server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4, which haveconfigurations identical with the configurations of their respectivecounterparts implemented by the first embodiment. The followingdescription is focused on differences between the first and thirdembodiments.

In the case of the third embodiment, as shown in FIG. 15, the musicreproduction terminal 4 holds the music reproduction order informationreferred to as the reproduction list showing an order of reproduction ofpieces of musical data. The music reproduction terminal 4 requests themusic providing server 2 to provide pieces of streaming musical data inan order shown by the reproduction list. The music reproduction terminal4 then receives the requested pieces of streaming musical data from themusic providing server 2 and reproduces them. Thus, in accordance withthe music reproduction system 1, the music reproduction terminal 4 iscapable of reproducing a plurality of pieces of musical data in astreaming reproduction process in an order shown by the reproductionlist held by the music reproduction terminal 4. This scheme is explainedin more detail as follows.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on theoperation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 inorder to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction processto reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at step ST21 of aprocedure shown in FIG. 16, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 transmits a reproducibility confirmation requestsignal to the music providing server 2 by way of a transmission routeincluding the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 and the network 3 following the terminalcommunication section 7 as a signal requesting the music providingserver 2 to confirm that the music reproduction terminal 4 is entitledto a continuous streaming reproduction service. The transmittedreproducibility confirmation request signal includes the terminal ID ofthe music reproduction terminal 4.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providingserver 2 receives the reproducibility confirmation request signal fromthe music reproduction terminal 4, the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 produces a result of determination as towhether or not a continuous streaming reproduction service can berendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminalID included in the reproducibility confirmation request signal. If theuser has been registered in the music providing server 2 as a usersubscribing to the continuous streaming reproduction service, forexample, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2confirms that a continuous streaming reproduction service can berendered to the music reproduction terminal 4. In this case, the controlsection 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits areproducibility notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 byway of a transmission route including the server communication section 8and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 at stepST22 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16 as a signal informing the musicreproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streaming reproduction servicecan be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the reproducibility notice signal fromthe music providing server 2, the control section 6 employed in themusic reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process to create areproduction list in conformity with the signal at step ST23 of theprocedure shown in FIG. 16.

The processing to create a reproduction list is explained by referringto flowcharts shown in FIG. 17 as follows. In the case of areproduction-list creation processing RT8 represented by the flowchartshown in FIG. 17A, for example, at the first step SP91, the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits areproduction-list creation request signal including the terminal ID ofthe music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by wayof a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7. Thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 receiving thereproduction-list creation request signal carries out areproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical dataeach reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by theterminal ID included in the reproduction-list creation request signal ina streaming reproduction process from a plurality of pieces of musicaldata stored in the server storage section 10. Then, by arranging themusical-data IDs of the reproducible pieces of musical data selected inthe reproducible-music selection process in a reproduction order, thecontrol section 9 is capable of creating a reproduction list L2 like oneshown in FIG. 18A. Subsequently, the control section 9 transmits thecreated reproduction list L2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by wayof a transmission route including the server communication section 8 andthe network 3 following the server communication section 8. When theterminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 receives the reproduction list L2 from the music providingserver 2, at step SP92, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 stores the received reproduction list L2 in theterminal storage section 14. By the way, when the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 creates the reproduction listL2, the control section 9 associates each musical-data ID put on thecreated reproduction list L2 with a server ID of the music providingserver 2, which provides musical data identified by the musical-data ID.

In the case of a reproduction-list creation processing RT9 representedby the flowchart shown in FIG. 17B, at the first step SP93, the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits areproduction-list creation request signal including the terminal ID ofthe music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by wayof a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 and the network 3following the terminal communication section 7. In addition to theterminal ID, the reproduction-list creation request signal also includesa reproduction-list creation condition, which is a condition forcreation of a reproduction list L2. The control section 9 employed inthe music providing server 2 receiving the reproduction-list creationrequest signal carries out a reproducible-music selection process toselect pieces of musical data each reproducible by the musicreproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in thereproduction-list creation request signal in a streaming reproductionprocess from a plurality of pieces of musical data stored in the serverstorage section 10. Then, the control section 9 creates a reproductionlist L2 by arranging musical-data IDs in a reproduction order satisfyinga condition specified in the condition included in the reproduction-listgeneration request signal as the condition for creation of thereproduction list L2. The musical-data IDs put on the reproduction listL2 are each used for identifying a specific piece of musical dataextracted from the pieces of musical data selected in thereproducible-music selection process as a specific piece of musical datameeting the condition. Subsequently, the control section 9 transmits thecreated reproduction list L2 to the music reproduction terminal 4 by wayof a transmission route including the server communication section 8 andthe network 3 following the server communication section 8. When theterminal communication section 7 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 receives the reproduction list L2 from the music providingserver 2, at step SP94, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 stores the received reproduction list L2 in theterminal storage section 14.

In the case of a reproduction-list creation processing RT10 representedby the flowchart shown in FIG. 17C, at the first step SP95, the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits areproducible-music notice request signal including the terminal ID ofthe music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providing server 2 by wayof a transmission route including the terminal communication section 7and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7 as asignal requesting the music providing server 2 to inform the musicreproduction terminal 4 of specific pieces of musical data stored in theserver storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2. Thespecific pieces of musical data are each reproducible by the musicreproduction terminal 4 identified by the terminal ID included in thereproducible-music notice request signal in a streaming reproductionprocess. The control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2receiving the reproduction-list creation request signal carries out areproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical dataeach reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by theterminal ID included in the reproduction-list creation request signal ina streaming reproduction process from a plurality of pieces of musicaldata stored in the server storage section 10. Then, by arranging themusical-data IDs of the reproducible pieces of musical data selected inthe reproducible-music selection process in a reproduction order, thecontrol section 9 creates a reproducible-music list. When the controlsection 9 creates the reproducible-music list, the control section 9associates each musical-data ID put on the created reproducible-musiclist as the musical-data ID of a piece of musical data found in thereproducible-music selection process with a server ID of the musicproviding server 2, which provides musical data identified by themusical-data ID to the music reproduction terminal 4. Subsequently, thecontrol section 9 transmits the created reproducible-music list to themusic reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission route includingthe server communication section 8 and the network 3 following theserver communication section 8. When the terminal communication section7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 receives thereproducible-music list from the music providing server 2, at step SP96,the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4creates a reproduction list L2 by arranging the musical-data IDs eachshown on the received reproducible-music list as an ID associated withthe server ID in any reproduction order or, to be more specific, in areproduction order conforming to a condition set by the user. Finally,the control section 6 stores the created reproduction list L2 in theterminal storage section 14.

As described above, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 stores a reproduction list L2 created bycarrying out the reproduction-list creation processing RT8, RT9 or RT10explained above in the terminal storage section 14. Then, at step ST24of the procedure shown in FIG. 16, the control section 6 refers to thestored reproduction list L2 to recognize for example the firstmusical-data ID in the reproduction order and the server ID associatedwith the musical-data ID, transmitting a music-providing process startrequest signal to the music providing server 2 identified by therecognized server ID as a signal requesting the music providing server 2to start a process of providing a piece of musical data identified bythe recognized musical-data ID to the music reproduction terminal 4. Bythe way, as shown in FIG. 18B, the music-providing process start requestsignal includes the server ID of a server requested to start the processof providing a piece of musical data, the musical-data ID of the pieceof the musical data and the terminal ID of the music reproductionterminal 4.

When the server communication section 8 employed in the music providingserver 2 identified by the server ID included in the music-providingprocess start request signal receives the music-providing process startrequest signal from the music reproduction terminal 4, at step ST25 ofthe procedure shown in FIG. 16, the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 transmits a music-providing process startnotice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by way of atransmission route including the server communication section 8 employedin the music providing server 2 and the network 3 following the servercommunication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproductionterminal 4 that the music providing server 2 has started the process ofproviding a piece of musical data identified by the musical-data IDincluded in the music-providing process start request signal to themusic reproduction terminal 4. By the way, the music-providing processstart notice signal includes the attributes of the musical data providedby the music providing server 2. The attributes typically include thetitle of the streaming musical data to be reproduced from now on in astreaming reproduction process and the names of artists associated withthe streaming musical data.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the music-providing process startnotice signal from the music providing server 2, at step ST26 of theprocedure shown in FIG. 16, the control section 6 displays informationbased on musical-data attributes included in the receivedmusic-providing process start notice signal on the display section 11 asinformation on the streaming musical data. The displayed informationtypically includes the title of the streaming musical data to bereproduced from now on in a streaming reproduction process and the namesof artists associated with the streaming musical data.

Then, at step ST27 of the procedure shown in FIG. 16, the controlsection 9 employed in the music providing server 2 identified by theserver ID included in the music-providing process start request signalreads out musical data identified by the musical-data ID included in themusic-providing process start request signal from the server storagesection 10 and transmits the musical data read out from the serverstorage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified bythe terminal ID included in the music-providing process start requestsignal as streaming musical data.

Right after the transmission of the streaming musical data to bereproduced first in accordance with the reproduction order to the musicreproduction terminal 4 is ended, at step ST28 of the procedure shown inFIG. 16, the control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2transmits a transmission end notice signal to the music reproductionterminal 4 by way of a transmission route including the servercommunication section 8 and the network 3 following the servercommunication section 8 as a signal informing the music reproductionterminal 4 that the transmission of the streaming musical data has beenended.

When the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives the transmission end notice signal fromthe music providing server 2, at the second step ST24 of the procedureshown in FIG. 16, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 refers to the stored reproduction list L2 torecognize this time the second musical-data ID in the reproduction orderand the server ID associated with the musical-data ID, transmitting amusic-providing process start request signal to the music providingserver 2 identified by the recognized server ID as a signal requestingthe music providing server 2 to start a process of providing a piece ofmusical data identified by the recognized musical-data ID.

The music reproduction terminal 4 and the music providing server 2repeatedly execute the steps ST24 to ST28 for each of the subsequentpieces of musical data in the same way as the procedure described above.In this way, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable ofsequentially reproducing a plurality of pieces of streaming musical datain accordance with the reproduction list L2 stored in the terminalstorage section 14.

Next, the continuous streaming reproduction procedure MRT3 shown in FIG.16 is explained by dividing the procedure into a processing procedureexecuted by the music providing server 2 and a processing procedureexecuted by the music reproduction terminal 4 as follows.

First of all, a music providing processing procedure RT11 executed bythe music providing server 2 is described by referring to a flowchartshown in FIG. 19 as follows.

When a reproducibility confirmation request signal is received from themusic reproduction terminal 4 at the first step SP101, the flow of theprocedure goes on to the next step SP102 at which the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 produces a result ofdetermination as to whether or not a continuous streaming reproductionservice can be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 identifiedby a terminal ID included in the received a reproducibility confirmationrequest signal. If the determination result produced at step SP102 is adenial, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP103 at which thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits animpossible-reproduction notice signal to the music reproduction terminal4 by way of a transmission route including the server communicationsection 8 employed in the music providing server 2 and the network 3following the server communication section 8 in order to inform the userof the music reproduction terminal 4 that a continuous streamingreproduction service is not able to be rendered to the user and then, atthe next step SP104, the control section 9 ends the execution of themusic providing processing procedure RT11. This is because the denialresult indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service is notable to be rendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the factthat the user of the music reproduction terminal 4 is not a registereduser subscribing to the service.

If the determination result produced at step SP102 is an affirmation, onthe other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP105 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmitsa possible-reproduction notice signal to the music reproduction terminal4 by way of a transmission route including the server communicationsection 8 and the network 3 following the server communication section 8in order to inform the user that a continuous streaming reproductionservice can be rendered to the user. This is because the affirmationresult indicates that a continuous streaming reproduction service can berendered to the music reproduction terminal 4 due to the fact that theuser of the music reproduction terminal 4 is a registered usersubscribing to the service.

Then, at the next step SP106, the server communication section 8employed in the music providing server 2 receives a music-providingprocess start request signal from the music reproduction terminal 4. Asdescribed earlier, the music-providing process start request signalincludes the musical-data ID of a piece of the musical data and theterminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4. Subsequently, at thenext step SP107, the control section 9 employed in the music providingserver 2 produces a result of determination as to whether or not thepiece of the musical data identified by the musical-data ID included inthe music-providing process start request signal can be provided to themusic reproduction terminal 4.

If the determination result produced at step SP107 is a denialindicating that the piece of the musical data identified by themusical-data ID included in the music-providing process start requestsignal is not able to be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4typically due to the fact that the piece of data does not exist in theserver storage section 10 employed in the music providing server 2, theflow of the procedure goes on to step SP108. At step SP108 the controlsection 9 employed in the music providing server 2 transmits anavailable music notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 byway of a transmission route including the server communication section 8and the network 3 following the server communication section 8 in orderto inform the music reproduction terminal 4 that the requested piece ofdata are not able to be provided to the music reproduction terminal 4.Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP112. If thedetermination result produced at step SP107 is an affirmation indicatingthat the piece of the musical data identified by the musical-data IDincluded in the music-providing process start request signal can beprovided to the music reproduction terminal 4 typically due to the factthat the piece of data exists in the server storage section 10 employedin the music providing server 2, on the other hand, the flow of theprocedure goes on to step SP109. At step SP109, the control section 9employed in the music providing server 2 transmits a music-providingprocess start notice signal to the music reproduction terminal 4 by wayof a transmission route including the server communication section 8 andthe network 3 following the server communication section 8 as a signalinforming the music reproduction terminal 4 that the music providingserver 2 has started the process of providing a piece of musical dataidentified by the musical-data ID included in the music-providingprocess start request signal to the music reproduction terminal 4.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP110 at whichthe control section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 reads outmusical data identified by the musical-data ID included in themusic-providing process start request signal from the server storagesection 10 and transmits the musical data read out from the serverstorage section 10 to the music reproduction terminal 4 identified bythe terminal ID included in the music-providing process start requestsignal as streaming musical data.

Right after the transmission of the streaming musical data to the musicreproduction terminal 4 is completed, the flow of the procedure goes onto the next step SP111 at which the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 transmits a transmission end notice signal tothe music reproduction terminal 4 by way of a transmission routeincluding the server communication section 8 and the network 3 followingthe server communication section 8 as a signal informing the musicreproduction terminal 4 that the transmission of the streaming musicaldata has been ended.

Then, at the next step SP112, the control section 9 employed in themusic providing server 2 produces a result of determination as towhether or not a music-providing process start request signal has beenreceived from the music reproduction terminal 4 as a signal requestingthe music providing server 2 to start a process of providing the nextmusical data to the music reproduction terminal 4. If the determinationresult produced at step SP112 is an affirmation indicating that amusic-providing process start request signal has been received from themusic reproduction terminal 4, the flow of the procedure goes back tostep SP107. If the determination result produced at step SP112 is adenial indicating that no music-providing process start request signalhas been received from the music reproduction terminal 4, on the otherhand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the last step SP104 at whichthe control section 9 ends the execution of the music providingprocessing procedure RT11.

Next, a music reproduction processing procedure RT12 executed by themusic reproduction terminal 4 is described by referring to a flowchartshown in FIG. 20 as follows.

When a continuous streaming reproduction operation is carried out on theoperation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 inorder to make a request for a continuous streaming reproduction processto reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, at the first stepSP121, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 transmits a reproducibility confirmation request signal including theterminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providingserver 2 by way of a transmission route including the terminalcommunication section 7 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4and the network 3 following the terminal communication section 7.

Then, at the next step SP122, the control section 6 employed in themusic reproduction terminal 4 produces a result of determination as towhether a reproducibility notice signal or an irreproducibility noticesignal has been received from the music providing server 2. If thedetermination result produced at step SP122 is a denial indicating thatan irreproducibility notice signal has been received from the musicproviding server 2, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP123 atwhich the control section 6 carries out error processing including aprocess to inform the user that the request for a continuous streamingreproduction process to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical datahas been turned down. Then, at the next step SP124, the control section6 ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedureRT12.

If the determination result produced at step SP122 is an affirmationindicating that a reproducibility notice signal has been received fromthe music providing server 2, on the other hand, the flow of theprocedure goes on to step SP125 at which the control section 6 employedin the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out a process to create areproduction list L2 by executing one of the reproduction-list creationprocedures RT8, RT9 and RT10 described before and stores the createdreproduction list L2 in the terminal storage section 14.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP126 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4refers to the reproduction list L2 stored in the terminal storagesection 14 to recognize for example the first musical-data ID in thereproduction order and the server ID associated with the musical-dataID, transmitting a music-providing process start request signal to themusic providing server 2 identified by the recognized server ID as asignal requesting the music providing server 2 to start a process ofproviding a piece of musical data identified by the recognizedmusical-data ID to the music reproduction terminal 4.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP127 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4produces a result of determination as to whether a music-providingprocess start notice signal or an impossible music-providing processnotice signal has been received from the music providing server 2. Ifthe determination result produced at step SP127 is an affirmationindicating that a music-providing process start notice signal has beenreceived from the music providing server 2, the flow of the proceduregoes on to step SP128. If the determination result produced at stepSP127 is a denial indicating that an impossible music-providing processnotice signal has been received from the music providing server 2 inplace of a music-providing process start notice signal, on the otherhand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP131.

At step SP128, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 displays information based on musical-data attributesincluded in the received music-providing process start notice signal onthe display section 11 as information on the streaming musical data. Thedisplayed information typically includes the title of the streamingmusical data to be reproduced from now on in a streaming reproductionprocess and the names of artists associated with the streaming musicaldata.

Then, at the next step SP129, the control section 6 employed in themusic reproduction terminal 4 carries out a streaming reproductionprocess by controlling the reproduction section 12 to sequentiallyreproduce the streaming musical data being received by the terminalcommunication section 7 from the music providing server 2.

Right after the terminal communication section 7 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 receives a transmission end notice signal fromthe music providing server 2 at the next step SP130, the flow of theprocedure goes on to the next step SP131 at which the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 refers to the reproductionlist L2 stored in the terminal storage section 14 in order to produce aresult of determination as to whether or not the musical data to bereproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order and a serverID associated with the next musical data exist on the reproduction listL2. If the determination result produced at step SP131 is an affirmationindicating that the next musical data and the server ID exist on thereproduction list L2, the flow of the procedure goes back to step SP126at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 transmits a music-providing process start request signal tothe music providing server 2 as a signal requesting the music providingserver 2 to start a process of providing the musical data to bereproduced next in accordance with the reproduction order to the musicreproduction terminal 4. If the determination result produced at stepSP131 is a denial indicating that neither next musical data nor serverID exists on the reproduction list L2, on the other hand, the flow ofthe procedure goes on to the last step SP124 at which the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 ends theexecution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT12.

As described above, the configuration of the music reproduction system 1includes the music providing server 2 for providing musical data and themusic reproduction terminal 4 for receiving musical data provided by themusic providing server 2 by way of the network 3 and sequentiallyreproducing the musical data in streaming reproduction processes.

When the user carries out a continuous streaming reproduction operationon the operation section 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4in order to make a request for a continuous streaming reproductionprocess to reproduce a plurality of pieces of musical data, the controlsection 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 transmits atleast the terminal ID of the music reproduction terminal 4 to the musicproviding server 2.

When the music providing server 2 receives the terminal ID of the musicreproduction terminal 4 from the music reproduction terminal 4, thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 carries out areproducible-music selection process to select pieces of musical dataeach reproducible by the music reproduction terminal 4 identified by theterminal ID in a streaming reproduction process from a plurality ofpieces of musical data stored in the server storage section 10. Then, byarranging the musical-data IDs of the reproducible pieces of musicaldata selected in the reproducible-music selection process in areproduction order, the control section 9 employed in the musicproviding server 2 or the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L2 showing the orderof reproduction of the selected pieces of musical data. The reproductionlist L2 is then stored in the terminal storage section 14 employed inthe music reproduction terminal 4.

Then, the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 requests the music providing server 2 to provide the musicreproduction terminal 4 with pieces of musical data as streaming musicaldata in accordance with a reproduction order shown by the reproductionlist L2 stored in the terminal storage section 14.

Thus, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentiallyreproducing a plurality of pieces of streaming musical data beingsequentially received from the music providing server 2 in accordancewith the reproduction list L2 stored in the terminal storage section 14.

In accordance with the configuration described above, the musicreproduction terminal 4 is capable of sequentially reproducing aplurality of pieces of streaming musical data being sequentiallyreceived from the music providing server 2 in accordance with thereproduction list L2 stored in the terminal storage section 14. As aresult, it is possible to realize a music reproduction system 1 capableof reproducing musical data with a substantially high degree ofefficiency without the need for the user to spend long time and muchlabor.

(5) Fourth Embodiment

A fourth embodiment implements the music reproduction system 1, themusic providing server 2 and the music reproduction terminal 4, whichhave configurations identical with the configurations of theirrespective counterparts implemented by the first embodiment. Thefollowing description is focused on differences between the first andfourth embodiments.

In the case of the fourth embodiment, a recording medium used forrecording a plurality of pieces of musical data is mounted on arecording-medium reproduction section 15 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4. Examples of the recording medium are a CD(Compact Disc), a semiconductor memory and an MD (Mini Disc, which is atrade mark). The recording-medium reproduction section 15 reads outmusical data from the recording medium mounted thereon and supplies themusical data read out from the recording medium to the reproductionsection 12, which then reproduces the musical data. In this way, thesound outputting section 13 is capable of outputting sounds of themusical data.

A CD is also used for storing typically CD recording music managementinformation I1 including musical-data IDs each used for identifying apiece of musical data recorded on the CD and storage locations eachassociated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21A. By theway, the musical-data ID of musical data recorded on a CD corresponds tothe title of the musical data, the name of an artist associated with themusical data and a track number assigned to the musical data.

By the same token, a semiconductor memory is also used for storingtypically semiconductor-memory recording music management information I2including musical-data IDs each used for identifying a piece of musicaldata recorded on the semiconductor memory and storage locations eachassociated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21B. In thesame way, an MD is also used for storing typically MD recording musicmanagement information I3 including musical-data IDs each used foridentifying a piece of musical data recorded on the MD and storagelocations each associated with one of the musical-data IDs as shown inFIG. 21C.

In the case of this embodiment, typically, a hard-disk drive employed inthe music reproduction terminal 4 to function as the terminal storagesection 14 is used for storing a plurality of pieces of musical data inadvance. Much like the recording mediums described above, the terminalstorage section 14 is also used for storing typically terminal recordingmusic management information 14 including musical-data IDs each used foridentifying a piece of musical data recorded on the terminal storagesection 14 and storage locations each associated with one of themusical-data IDs as shown in FIG. 21D.

By referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 22, the following descriptionexplains a reproduction processing procedure RT13 executed to carry outreproduction processing to reproduce musical data recorded on a CD. Bythe way, reproduction processing procedures for a semiconductor memory,an MD and the terminal storage section 14 are all but the same as thereproduction processing procedure RT13, making it unnecessary to explainthe reproduction processing procedures for a semiconductor memory, an MDand the terminal storage section 14.

If a reproduction-requesting operation to make a request forreproduction of musical data recorded on the CD is carried out byentering the musical-data ID of the musical data to the operationsection 5 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4, at the firststep SP141, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 refers to the CD recording music management information I1 torecognize a storage location associated with the musical-data ID enteredto the operation section 5. In this case, the musical-data ID istypically a track number.

Then, the flow of the processing goes on to the next step SP142 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4makes an access to the recognized storage location, which is a storagelocation on the CD, and produces a result of determination as to whetheror not the musical data recorded at the storage location can bereproduced.

If the determination result produced at step SP142 is a denialindicating that the musical data recorded at the storage location cannotbe reproduced, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP143 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4carries out error processing including a process to inform the user thatthe request for a reproduction process to reproduce the musical data hasbeen turned down. Then, at the next step SP144, the control section 6ends the execution of the music reproduction processing procedure RT13.

If the determination result produced at step SP142 is an affirmationindicating that the musical data recorded at the storage location can bereproduced, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to stepSP145 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 produces a result of determination as to whether or not aninitialization process for reproduction of musical data from the CD hasbeen done. If the determination result produced at step SP145 is adenial indicating that the initialization process has not been done, theflow of the procedure goes on to step SP146 at which the control section6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out theinitialization process. Then, upon completion of the initializationprocess, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP147 atwhich the control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal4 carries out a process to reproduce the requested musical data from theCD. If the determination result produced at step SP145 is an affirmationindicating that the initialization process has been done, on the otherhand, the flow of the procedure goes on directly to step SP147 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4carries out a process to reproduce the requested musical data from theCD as described above.

By the way, if a reproduction-list creation requesting operation to makea request for creation of a reproduction list is carried out, thecontrol section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 createsa reproduction list L3 like one shown in FIG. 23 and stores the createdreproduction list L3 in the terminal storage section 14.

The music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproduction list L3 showingthe musical-data ID of each piece of musical data stored on the CD, thesemiconductor memory or the MD, musical-data related informationrelevant to the musical data and a provider ID identifying the providerof the musical data. The musical-data related information typicallyincludes the title of the musical data and the name of an artistassociated with the musical data. On the other hand, the provider ID ofthe musical data can be the ID of the CD, the semiconductor memory orthe MD.

The control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 mayalso recognize musical data stored in the music providing server 2 asmusical data that can be reproduced by the music reproduction terminal4. In this case, the reproduction list L3 shows the musical-data ID ofsuch musical data, musical-data related information relevant to themusical data and a provider ID identifying the provider of the musicaldata. As described above, the musical-data related information typicallyincludes the title of the musical data and the name of an artistassociated with the musical data. In this case, however, the provider IDof the musical data is the music providing server 2.

Next, by referring to a flowchart shown in FIG. 24, the followingdescription explains a music reproduction processing procedure RT14 forreproducing musical data in accordance with the reproduction list L3.

At the first step SP151, the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 recognizes a music reproduction requestingoperation carried out on the operation section 5 to make a request forreproduction of pieces of musical data in accordance with thereproduction list L3. Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to thenext step SP152 at which the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 refers to the reproduction list L3 to recognizethe musical-data ID of the musical data to be reproduced first inaccordance with the reproduction order. Subsequently, the flow of theprocedure goes on to the next step SP153 at which the control section 6recognizes a provider ID associated with the musical-data ID. Forexample, the provider ID is the ID of a CD.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP154 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4produces a result of determination as to whether or not the musical datacan be acquired from the CD serving as the musical-data provideridentified by the recognized provider ID. If the determination resultproduced at step S154 is a negation indicating that the musical data isnot able to be acquired from the CD serving as the musical-data providerdue to, for example, the fact that the CD has not been mounted on orconnected to the recording-medium reproduction section 15, the flow ofthe procedure goes on to step SP155 at which the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out errorprocessing including a process to inform the user that the musical datacannot be acquired from the CD. Then, the flow of the procedure goes onto the next step SP156.

If the determination result produced at step S154 is an affirmationindicating that the musical data can be acquired from the CD alreadybeen mounted on or connected to the recording-medium reproductionsection 15, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to stepSP157 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 carries out a process as follows.

At step SP157, the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 refers to music management information of the musical-dataprovider identified by the provider ID recognized at step SP153 torecognize the storage location associated with the musical-data IDrecognized at step SP152. In this case, the music management informationof the musical-data provider is the CD recording music managementinformation I1.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP158 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4makes an access to the storage location recognized at step S157 as astorage location on the CD and produces a result of determination as towhether or not the musical data can be reproduced.

If the determination result produced at step S158 is a negationindicating that the musical data is not able to be reproduced, the flowof the procedure goes on to step SP155 at which the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out errorprocessing including a process to inform the user that the musical datais not able to be reproduced. If the determination result produced atstep S158 is an affirmation indicating that the musical data can bereproduced, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to stepSP159 at which the control section 6 employed in the music reproductionterminal 4 reads out the musical data from the musical-data provider andstarts reproducing the musical data.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP160 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4produces a result of determination as to whether or not the reproductionof the musical data can be started normally. If the determination resultproduced at step S160 is a negation indicating that the reproduction ofthe musical data is not able to be started normally, the flow of theprocedure goes on to step SP155 at which the control section 6 employedin the music reproduction terminal 4 carries out error processing. Ifthe determination result produced at step S160 is an affirmationindicating that the reproduction of the musical data can be startednormally, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to stepSP161 at which the control section 6 fetches musical-data relatedinformation associated with the musical-data ID of the musical data fromthe reproduction list L3 and displays data based on the musical-datarelated information on the display section 11 in order to inform theuser that the reproduction of the musical data has been started. Thedisplayed information includes the title of the musical data and thename of an artist associated with the musical data.

Then, the flow of the procedure goes on to the next step SP162 at whichthe control section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4produces a result of determination as to whether or not the reproductionof the musical data has been completed. If the determination resultproduced at step S162 is a negation indicating that the reproduction ofthe musical data has not been completed yet, the flow of the proceduregoes back to step SP162 to repeat the process of the same step. If thedetermination result produced at step S162 is an affirmation indicatingthat the reproduction of the musical data has been completed, on theother hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to step SP163 at which thecontrol section 6 produces a result of determination as to whether ornot musical-data related information and a musical-data ID still remainon the reproduction list L3 to be processed next. If the determinationresult produced at step S163 is an affirmation indicating thatmusical-data related information and a musical-data ID still remain onthe reproduction list L3 to be processed next, the flow of the proceduregoes on to step SP156 at which the control section 6 employed in themusic reproduction terminal 4 refers to the next object of reproductionon the reproduction list L3. Then, the flow of the procedure goes backto step SP152. If the determination result produced at step S163 is anegation indicating that neither musical-data related information normusical-data ID remains on the reproduction list L3 to be processednext, on the other hand, the flow of the procedure goes on to the laststep SP164 at which the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 ends the execution of the musical-datareproduction processing procedure RT14.

As described above, by execution of the music reproduction processingprocedure RT14 for reproducing musical data in accordance with areproduction list, the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable ofsequentially reproducing pieces of musical data in accordance with thereproduction list L3. As described above, the reproduced pieces ofmusical data are pieces of musical data downloaded from the musicproviding server 2, pieces of musical data recorded on a CD, an MD or asemiconductor memory, or pieces of musical data stored in advance in theterminal storage section 14.

By the way, in the case of this embodiment, the control section 6employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 creates a reproductionlist L3 showing a musical-data ID of each specific piece of musicaldata, information related to the specific piece of musical data and theID of a provider providing the specific piece of musical data. Thespecific piece of musical data is a piece of data selected among piecesof musical data stored in the provider, which is the music providingserver 2, as a piece of musical data that can be reproduced by the musicreproduction terminal 4. However, the scope of the present invention isnot limited to this embodiment. For example, only the music providingserver 2 is shown as the provider ID as indicated on the second row ofthe reproduction list L3 shown in FIG. 25. In this case, the musicproviding server 2 holds a reproduction list L1 as is the case with thefirst embodiment described earlier. With the reproduction list L3 heldin the music reproduction terminal 4 and the reproduction list L1 heldin the music providing server 2, the music reproduction terminal 4employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 is capable of reproducingstreaming musical data corresponding to, for example, the second line ofthe reproduction list L3 in accordance with the reproduction list L1when the second row is recognized as an object of reproduction bycarrying out the processing of the steps ST4 to ST7 of the procedureshown in FIG. 7.

(6) Other Embodiments

In the first to fourth embodiments described above, musical data isreproduced as a piece of content. It is to be noted, however, that thescope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. Forexample, the present invention can be applied to other contents such asa movie or a TV program.

In addition, in the first to fourth embodiments described above, thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 and thecontrol section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 executethe continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT1 to MRT3and other procedures in accordance with programs installed in thecontrol section 9 and the control section 6 respectively. However, thescope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. Forexample, the music providing server 2 and the music reproductionterminal 4 are capable of executing the continuous streamingreproduction processing procedures MRT1 to MRT3 and other procedures byhardware, which is circuits provided in the music providing server 2 andthe music reproduction terminal 4 respectively as circuits for executingthe continuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT1 to MRT3and other procedures. If the control section 9 employed in the musicproviding server 2 and the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 execute the continuous streaming reproductionprocessing procedures MRT1 to MRT3 and other procedures in accordancewith preinstalled programs, the programs can be installed from arecording medium for storing the programs. An example of the recordingmedium is a CD.

In addition, in the first to fourth embodiments described above, thecontrol section 9 employed in the music providing server 2 selects onlypieces of musical data to be provided to the music reproduction terminal4 in order to exclude musical data having a format incompatible with thereproduction characteristic of the control section 6 employed in themusic reproduction terminal 4. However, the scope of the presentinvention is not limited to these embodiments. For example, the musicproviding server 2 may also change the format of musical data into aformat compatible with the control section 6 before providing themusical data to the music reproduction terminal 4. To put it concretely,let us assume for example that the music reproduction terminal 4 iscompatible with the ATRAC format only. In this case, if the musical dataheld in the music providing server 2 has the MP3 format, a converteremployed in the music providing server 2 converts the musical datahaving the MP3 format into musical data having the ATRAC format beforetransmitting the musical data to the music reproduction terminal 4 byadoption of a streaming method. In this case, the terminal IDtransmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providingserver 2 includes information on the format compatible with the musicreproduction terminal 4.

It is to be noted that, instead of including information on the formatcompatible with the music reproduction terminal 4 in the terminal IDtransmitted by the music reproduction terminal 4 to the music providingserver 2, the music providing server 2 may read out a musical filestored in the music reproduction terminal 4 and recognize the format ofthe file as a format compatible with the music reproduction terminal 4.

By the way, in the configuration shown in FIG. 1, the content-providingapparatus 101 corresponds to the music providing server 2, the contentreproduction apparatus 102 corresponds to the music reproductionterminal 4, the terminal-ID sender section 103 corresponds to thecontrol section 6 employed in the music reproduction terminal 4 as acontroller for executing the continuous streaming reproductionprocessing procedures MRT1 to MRT3, the content storage section 104corresponds to the server storage section 10, the content selectionsection 105, the reproduction-list creation section 106 and the contentproviding section 107 correspond to the control section 9 employed inthe music providing server 2 as a controller for executing thecontinuous streaming reproduction processing procedures MRT1 to MRT3whereas the content reproduction section 108 corresponds to thereproduction section 12. In the configuration shown in FIG. 2, thecontent-providing apparatus 111 corresponds to the music providingserver 2, the content reproduction apparatus 112 corresponds to themusic reproduction terminal 4, the terminal-ID sender section 113, thereproduction-list creation section 116 and the content requestingsection 117 correspond to the control section 6 employed in the musicreproduction terminal 4 as a controller for executing the continuousstreaming reproduction processing procedures MRT1 to MRT3, the contentstorage section 114 corresponds to the server storage section 10, thecontent selection section 115 and the content providing section 118correspond to the control section 9 employed in the music providingserver 2 as a controller for executing the continuous streamingreproduction processing procedures MRT1 to MRT3 whereas the contentreproduction section 119 corresponds to the reproduction section 12.

For example, the present invention can be applied to typically a musicreproduction system including a music providing server for providingmusical data and a music reproduction terminal for acquiring musicaldata provided by the music providing server by way of a network and, atthe same time, reproducing the acquired musical data.

In addition, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that avariety of modifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterationsmay occur in dependence on design requirements and other factors insofaras they are within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalentsthereof.

1. A content reproduction system, comprising: a content-providingapparatus; and a content reproduction apparatus, wherein said contentreproduction apparatus includes a first communication unit configured totransmit a request to said content-providing apparatus, said requestincluding an apparatus identifier that identifies said contentreproduction apparatus, said request also including an artist name, anda reproducing unit configured to reproduce a plurality of content data,and said content-providing apparatus includes a second communicationunit configured to receive said request including said apparatusidentifier and said artist name from said content reproductionapparatus, a memory configured to store the plurality of content data,and a controller configured to select the plurality of content data fromsaid memory based on the apparatus identifier and said artist nameincluded in said request to create a reproduction list defining an orderof the plurality of content data, the second communication unit furtherconfigured to transmit a first one of the order of the plurality ofcontent data to the content reproduction apparatus, the controllerfurther configured to produce a result of a determination whether asecond one of the order of the plurality of content data exists, after aprocess to provide the first one of the order of the plurality ofcontent data has been started in response to said request, the secondcommunication unit further configured to transmit, upon thedetermination determining that the second one of the order of theplurality of content data exists, an attribute of the second one of theorder of the content data to the content reproduction apparatus, theattribute including an artist name of the second one of the order of theplurality of content data, the artist name of the second one of theorder of the plurality of content data being different from the artistname included in said request.
 2. The content reproduction systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said content-providing apparatus furtherincludes a converter configured to convert, based on said apparatusidentifier, a format of one of the plurality of content data that is notreproducible by said content reproduction apparatus into a format thatis compatible with said content reproduction apparatus.
 3. The contentreproduction system according to claim 1, wherein said apparatusidentifier indicates a format of the plurality of content data.
 4. Acontent reproduction method adopted by a content reproduction systemincluding a content-providing apparatus configured to provide aplurality of content data stored in a memory and a content reproductionapparatus configured to receive said plurality of content data providedby said content-providing apparatus, the content reproduction methodcomprising: transmitting a request to said content-providing apparatus,said request including an apparatus identifier that identifies saidcontent reproduction apparatus, said request also including an artistname; receiving said request including said apparatus identifier andsaid artist name from said content reproduction apparatus; selecting, atthe content-providing apparatus, the plurality of content data from saidmemory based on the apparatus identifier and said artist name includedin said request to create a reproduction list defining an order of theplurality of content data; transmitting a first one of the order of theplurality of content data to the content reproduction apparatus;determining that a second one of the order of the plurality of contentdata exists, after a process to provide the first one of the order ofthe plurality of content data has been started in response to thereceiving; and transmitting, upon the determining, an attribute of thesecond one to the content reproduction apparatus, the attributeincluding an artist name of the second one, the artist name of thesecond one being different from the artist name included in the request.5. A content-providing apparatus configured to provide a plurality ofcontent data to a content reproduction apparatus, comprising: acommunication unit configured to receive a request from said contentreproduction apparatus, said request including an apparatus identifierthat identities said content reproduction apparatus, said request alsoincluding an artist name; a memory configured to store the plurality ofcontent data; and a controller configured to select the plurality ofcontent data from said memory based on the apparatus identifier and saidartist name included in the request to create a reproduction listdefining an order of the plurality of content data, the communicationunit further configured to transmit a first content data of the order ofthe plurality of content data to said content reproduction apparatus,the controller further configured to produce a result of a determinationwhether a second content data of the order of the plurality of contentdata exists, after a process to provide the first content data has beenstarted in response to the request, the communication unit furtherconfigured to transmit, upon the determination determining that thesecond content data of the order of the plurality of content dataexists, an attribute of the second content data to the contentreproduction apparatus, the attribute including an artist name of thesecond content data, the artist name of the second content data beingdifferent from the artist name included in the request.
 6. Thecontent-providing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein saidcontroller is further configured to control a converter to convert aformat of one of the plurality of content data that is determined bysaid controller to be a format that cannot be reproduced by said contentreproduction apparatus into a format that is compatible with saidcontent reproduction apparatus.
 7. A computer readable storage mediumencoded with a computer readable program configured to cause aninformation processing apparatus to execute a method comprising:receiving a request from a content reproduction apparatus, said requestincluding an apparatus identifier that identifies said contentreproduction apparatus, said request also including an artist name;selecting a plurality of content data from a memory based on theapparatus identifier and said artist name included in the request tocreate a reproduction list defining an order of the plurality of contentdata; transmitting a first one of the order of the plurality of contentdata to the content reproduction apparatus; determining that a secondone of the order of the plurality of content data exists, after aprocess to provide the first one of the order of the plurality ofcontent data has been started in response to the receiving; andtransmitting, upon the determining, an attribute of the second one tothe content reproduction apparatus, the attribute including an artistname of the second one, the artist name of the second one beingdifferent from the artist name included in the request.
 8. The contentreproduction system according to claim 1, wherein said contentreproduction apparatus further includes a display configured to displaysaid artist name of the second one of the order of the plurality ofcontent data before reproducing the second one of the order of theplurality of content data.
 9. The content reproduction system accordingto claim 1, wherein said content-providing apparatus is configured toread out a file stored in said content reproduction apparatus to receivethe apparatus identifier, which indicates a format of the content datathat is compatible with said content reproduction apparatus.
 10. Thecontent reproduction method according to claim 4, wherein the apparatusidentifier is an indication of a format of one of the plurality ofcontent data that is compatible with said content reproductionapparatus.
 11. The content-providing apparatus according to claim 5,wherein the apparatus identifier indicates a format of one of theplurality of content data that is compatible with said contentreproduction apparatus.
 12. The computer readable storage mediumaccording to claim 7, wherein the apparatus identifier indicates aformat of one of the plurality of content data that is compatible withsaid content reproduction apparatus.
 13. The computer readable storagemedium according to claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:transmitting the second one of the order of the plurality of contentdata after the transmitting the attribute of the second one of the orderof the plurality of content data.
 14. The computer readable storagemedium according to claim 7, wherein the method further comprises:transmitting an identification of the first one of the order of theplurality of content data before the transmitting the first one of theorder of the plurality of content data; and receiving the identificationof the first one of the order of the plurality of content data, betweenthe transmitting the identification and the transmitting the first oneof the order of the plurality of content data.